Negotiating pregnancy, new motherhood and imprisonment

Abbott, L; Lockwood, KA

Abstract

Around 7% of the female prison population are pregnant (Albertson, O'Keeffe, Lessing-Turner, Burke & Renfrew, 2014; Kennedy, Marshall, Parkinson, Delap & Abbott, 2016; Prison Reform Trust, 2019). However, although recent years have witnessed growing academic interest in relation to mothering and imprisonment, limited attention has been paid to exploring the experiences of pregnancy for women serving a custodial sentence. Combining health and criminological research, this chapter offers a unique perspective of women’s accounts of pregnancy and imprisonment, highlighting the specific challenges faced by pregnant women in negotiating the prison environment, whilst also illustrating the adaptive strategies adopted in order to cope with pregnancy and new motherhood in the context of imprisonment.

Citation

Abbott, L., & Lockwood, K. (2020). Negotiating pregnancy, new motherhood and imprisonment. In K. Lockwood (Ed.), Mothering from the inside : research on motherhood and imprisonment (49-66). Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-343-320201006

• Publication Date: Sep 16, 2020
• Deposit Date: Oct 6, 2020
• Pages: 49-66
• Book Title: Mothering from the inside : research on motherhood and imprisonment
• ISBN: 9781789733440-(hardback);-9781789733433-(ebook)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-343-320201006
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-343-320201006
• Related Public URLs: https://doi.org/10.1108/9781789733433
• Additional Information: Projects : Mothering from the inside: narratives of motherhood and imprisonment